Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirty-two research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nineteen have issued a hold recommendation, eleven have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $103.72.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on FTNT shares. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Fortinet from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th.

Fortinet Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of FTNT stock opened at $107.70 on Friday. Fortinet has a 52-week low of $54.57 and a 52-week high of $110.99. The stock has a market cap of $82.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $98.12 and a 200-day moving average of $85.82.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 463.85%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Fortinet will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ken Xie sold 22,916 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.93, for a total transaction of $2,244,163.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 48,983,683 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,796,972,076.19. This trade represents a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William H. Neukom acquired 355 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $98.50 per share, for a total transaction of $34,967.50. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 150,245 shares in the company, valued at $14,799,132.50. The trade was a 0.24 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 67,860 shares of company stock valued at $6,469,056 in the last 90 days. 18.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortinet

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Fortinet by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,115,470 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,435,550,000 after buying an additional 730,994 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Fortinet by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,281,279 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,115,663,000 after buying an additional 766,135 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Fortinet by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,270,913 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,440,648,000 after buying an additional 387,901 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $724,048,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Fortinet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 7,622,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $720,150,000 after buying an additional 2,151,811 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortinet Company Profile

Fortinet, Inc provides cybersecurity and convergence of networking and security solutions worldwide. It offers secure networking solutions focus on the convergence of networking and security; network firewall solutions that consist of FortiGate data centers, hyperscale, and distributed firewalls, as well as encrypted applications; wireless LAN solutions; and secure connectivity solutions, including FortiSwitch secure ethernet switches, FortiAP wireless local area network access points, FortiExtender 5G connectivity gateways, and other products.